This Article is intended to give readers an overview of a wide range of issues involving solar energy that the Environmental Law Institute Solar Project staff is currently examining. The complexity of the legal issues and the speculative nature of many of the questions associated with this new and largely unrealized technology account for the broad approach taken here. There are too objectives in presenting in broad fashion the legal, institutional, and policy issues surrounding solar energy. First, we hope to stimulate additional inquiry into those questions we raise but which we have little hope of answering in this research. Second, we wish to invite reactions as to the importance and, indeed, the relevance of the public policy issues identified so far.